1. Field of the Invention
Many aspects of the present invention relate generally to the field of sport and ski watercraft and, more particularly, to power configurations for controlling sport and ski watercraft subsystems including attitude control modules for a watercraft.
2. General Background
“Sport and ski” watercraft refers to various classes of both outboard and inboard power boats used for recreation, sporting and exhibition activities. Various popular makers and distributors in the United States include Mercury, MasterCraft, Supra, Moomba, Centurion, SkiersChoice, and many others. The design of any particular sport and ski watercraft is very complicated, and there has long been a need to provide flexibly-reconfigurable subsystems to more readily accommodate umpteen different combinations of finish-line design choices to suit a particular group of customer demands. It may start with more basic design choices such as deciding what type of hull to use with what type/size of propulsion system and what type of capacity for passengers, towing, speed, versatility etc., but that's only the tip of the iceberg.
Once the more general choices are made, more detailed levels of design involve everything from things like whether it needs sonar and live-well capability for fishermen, or wake plates or trim tabs for skiers, or the types of stereo systems to accommodate, or how many ballast tanks might be desired for better control of the boat's attitude in the water, and where lights should be placed around the boat, . . . and how bright, and what color, and should they be mounted by chrome or matted finish brackets, and . . . on and on.
As a result, as one can imagine, there has been a long felt need to have wiring systems and power distribution arrangements that are flexibly-reconfigurable enough to accommodate the wide range of possible needs. Indeed, such long-felt needs have induced an entire industry of supply manufacturers that are constantly redesigning their systems to accommodate the wide variety of feature selections that sport and ski boat customers (and, hence, the boat manufacturers, customizers and distributors) might desire.
Many other advantages, disadvantages, objectives, problems and challenges of sport and ski boat design, and of the known power distribution, wiring and control systems therefor, will be evident to those of ordinary skill in the art, particularly after reading this specification and thinking about its implications.